Low cost private schooling in India: Is it pro poor and equitable?

India has seen an explosion in low-fee private (LFP) schooling aimed at the poorer strata of society, and this once-urban phenomenon has spread in the last decade to rural areas, with implications for equity due to the level of direct costs involved. This study explores whether or not LFP schooling in rural India is pro-poor and equitable, and finds that these schools are unaffordable to the bottom two wealth quintiles of families. This conclusion has implications for policy formation and shows that increased reliance on a market in education will not help to achieve equitable access to primary schooling for all.     

Participation in online discussion environments: Is it really effective?

This study aimed to develop a rubric to assess participation of students in online discussion environments. For this purpose, the study included 168 students who participated in a course offered online during the spring semester of the 2015–2016 academic year. Developed based on the literature, the rubric consists of two parts (Form and Content, and Number and Density) and seven criteria in total. “Form and Content” consists of congruity of the message in terms of subject, clarity of the message, original value of the message, interactional value of the message, and directing the subject; whereas, “Number and Density” consists of the number of messages and their density. Four different discussion subjects were presented to the students in an online discussion environment. The researchers analyzed the students’ messages individually. Exploratory Factor Analysis was performed in order to obtain evidence for construct validity. After conducting the factor analysis, results showed that the first dimension, which is “form and content” sub-factor, is unidimensional. The “number and density” sub-factor was included in the graded scoring key based on the literature and expert opinion. The findings show that the graded scoring key is reliable and valid.     

Engineering design in the classroom: Is it good science education or is it revolting?

The changing emphasis of science education today includes a shift from a narrowly disciplinary view of science to a more socially and technologically situated perspective. This article reports on the implementation of engineering design projects in about two dozen U. S. secondary science classrooms, following an inservice professional development course conducted at a university engineering college. Using data from an evaluation of the project and three sociological themes—secrecy and ownership, social persuasion and the status of facts, and the relationship between money and science—I argue that technological design projects provide a sociologically fruitful approach for teaching new themes in science education. However, teachers must rethink the nature of their subject matter, something that may be difficult if their training was disciplinary in emphasis.     

Caring teacher and sensitive student: is it a gender issue in the university context?

While there is abundant scholarship discussing gendered discourse on care in early childhood and compulsory education, little exploration has been made to explore whether care might also be gendered in higher education. This article, based on data from a year-long narrative study, examines the conceptualisation of care and its effects on teaching and learning in the university context with a gender lens. It on the one hand reveals an implicit but persistent feminine ethic of care in the university context, and on the other hand delivers the hope of developing an ethic of care that values and de-genders care in universities with the demonstration of agency in the two sensitive students.     

Learning in non-formal education: Is it “youthful” for youth in action?

This article offers insights into the practices of a non-formal education programme for youth provided by the European Union (EU). It takes a qualitative approach and is based on a case study of the European Voluntary Service (EVS). Data were collected during individual and focus group interviews with learners (the EVS volunteers), decision takers and trainers, with the aim of deriving an understanding of learning in non-formal education. The research questions concerned learning, the recognition of learning and perspectives of usefulness. The study also examined the Youthpass documentation tool as a key to understanding the recognition of learning and to determine whether the learning was useful for learners (the volunteers). The findings and analysis offer several interpretations of learning, and the recognition of learning, which take place in non-formal education. The findings also revealed that it is complicated to divide learning into formal and non-formal categories; instead, non-formal education is useful for individual learners when both formal and non-formal educational contexts are integrated. As a consequence, the division of formal and non-formal (and possibly even informal) learning creates a gap which works against the development of flexible and interconnected education with ubiquitous learning and mobility within and across formal and non-formal education. This development is not in the best interests of learners, especially when seeking useful learning and education for youth (what the authors term “youthful” for youth in action).     

Managing a modern university: is it time for a rethink?

The corporate approaches introduced in the late 1980s and now prevalent in universities in Australia have led to irrevocable changes in the way universities are managed and academics work. The management approaches widely applied in Australian universities are largely based on a top‐down corporate management model, with central control over policy and budget driven by the need to meet stringent external accountability requirements. This form of management rewards compliance and predictability. The economic environment over this period has changed drastically, becoming more global and uncertain. The prevailing management processes are not suited to the modern economic environment. A modern university is expected to operate more as an enterprise, but to do so effectively it needs flexible and responsive forms of management that are more inclusive of academics in the decision making process. This paper explores the organisational management literature and links it to the context in which universities operate. It considers the implications for managers and academics, as key stakeholders in a modern university, in this changeable environment.     

Genuine Religious Tolerance: Is It a Thing of the Past in Public Schools?

The so-called Culture Wars have made the issue of religious tolerance in schools more confusing than ever. Where once free speech trumped nearly every concern in these wars in the public schools, there is now great concern about whether messages put out are politically correct. The preoccupation teachers now have with avoiding speech or themes likely to get them into trouble has led to a new form of censorship. The authors explain that free speech in the educational forum requires respect for every earnest attempt to get at a legitimate truth claim. In matters religious, this epistemic openness is no longer respected. The argument below does not encourage teachers to engage in debate among students in matters religious, or even to encourage it. Nor are the arguments below aimed at introducing religious discourse as a means of developing skills of critical thinking as the feminist, moral philosopher Nel Noddings has previously recommended. The argument simply concludes with the modest recommendation that teachers be more conscientious about indirectly censoring or trivializing student religious speculations.     

School feeding and educational access in rural Ghana: Is poor targeting and delivery limiting impact?

In an effort to address social imbalances and equity in Ghana's education delivery and to achieve her Education for All (EFA) agenda, some pro-poor programmes have been introduced. Among these is the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) that aims among others, at providing safety nets for the poor, increasing school enrolment in addition to boosting domestic food production. While this programme has been implemented since 2005, there is paucity of information on the experiences of beneficiaries and implementers. The GSFP has been designed as a national programme to feed children in public kindergarten and primary schools, based on a single implementation framework. This single implementation framework does not make room for contextualization of programme implementation and allow the tapping into the knowledge base of both the school and the community in making judgments about who is really needy and who is not. Thus, the study sought to explore the experiences of beneficiaries and implementers of the programme within three rural communities in Ghana, using interviews and observations. Challenges of programme delivery, which include prolonged time spent on serving, eating and cleaning up, counter effective teaching and learning and pose a threat to education quality. There are policy conflicts, funding challenges and issues about targeting and sustainability of the programme. These give credence to the need to understand the local dynamics of poverty and how they affect demand for educational access in rural contexts. The paper finally proffers ways in which insights gained from these experiences can contribute to the current discourse on School Feeding Programmes in the context of developing economies.     

Intervention with preterms: Is it educational enough?

Preterm infants are at risk for developmental deviances, both in the motor and the social realms. The need for interventions in preterms has been long recognized, resulting in various approaches. The most telling criticism of these intervention studies is the lack of theoretical models, which could provide guidance in the what, when, where and how of intervention. Two recent developmental theories are described that may fill this need, the first a general developmental theory, the dynamic systems approach, and the other a more educational perspective of development elaborated by Valsiner from the work of Vygotsky. These theories can be integrated resulting in a theoretical perspective with didactical implications. This approach makes it possible to predict an effect of intervention on specific functions at specific points in development, which can be subsequently measured. It stresses the highly interrelated character of infant and parental parameters and plies for multi-perspective and longitudinal research with more attention to the specific didactical functions in parental behaviour.     

Teachers Avoiding Learners' Avoidance: Is it Possible?

Dealing with learners who prefer to take the back seat and avoid classroom participation can be every teacher's nightmare. This lack of participation may cause teacher frustration, and possibly the only way to reduce this lack of participation is to access the concept of avoidance strategy. Avoidance strategy is the abandonment of a classroom task by learners due to causes such as the task difficulty, topical knowledge, shyness, anxiety, face-saving, fear of negative evaluation, and peer pressure. This article provides an enhanced understanding of the notion of avoidance strategy, presents factors resulting in avoidance behavior, and offers strategies teachers can employ to reduce student use of avoidance behaviors. Reducing student anxiety, motivating learners, teacher support, group work, and pushing toward production are among the possible paths that may help reduce avoidance strategy use in the classrooms.     

The academic achievement of students in a New Zealand university: Does it pay to work?

There is growing concern about the detrimental effect of term-time employment on university students’ academic success. We report results from an online survey of 1837 students of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, whose responses were later matched to their academic records for a semester. The majority of employed students reported working out of financial necessity. There was no difference in grades between employed and non-employed students, but hours worked had a direct negative linear effect on the grades of employed students. Subsequent analysis suggested that employed students might have had significantly higher grades than the non-employed subsample if they had not worked. Mediating and moderating effects on the relationship between hours worked and academic performance were identified, and a model of the work–achievement relationship developed. Universities could do more to accommodate the reality of part-time work by their students.     

Is mathematics anxiety a factor?: First-year university students provide answers

Abstract

South Africa finds itself with skills shortages in scientifically oriented professions. A major contributor to this has been students’ failure in mathematics. This study set out to identify students who self-reported mathematics anxiety and determine if this was a factor in their studies. Participants were 204 mathematics first-year students registered for degrees in Engineering, Information Technology, and Natural Science. Included in this group were Foundation Year students. Results indicated that the majority of students admitted to higher levels of anxiety. With respect to the different degree programmes, chemistry students reported higher anxiety. Specifically, a negative association was established between performance and mathematics evaluation anxiety. It is concluded that lecturers through investigations such as this can identify and isolate highly anxious mathematics students. Such students may receive remedial psychological help or at least, lecturers may revise their presentation methods to suit these particular students. The study also concluded that there are underlying problems within the teaching and learning of mathematics among the study sample. As is typical of this type of investigation, a number of questions remain unanswered such as what the sources of students’ mathematics anxiety are and how these relate to the variables investigated here. A follow-up study will focus more closely on these issues.     

Reasoning by analogy: Is it schema-mediated or case-based?

One of the “classical” ways of learning consists of studying examples of already solved problems. In two experiments, we analyzed the degree of abstraction of the knowledge used by ninth grade students to solve algebra problems after studying worked examples. The results showed that there are two processes underlying reasoning by analogy, one that uses abstract knowledge and another that involves case-based reasoning. Both experiments pointed out interindividual differences in the population under study: when given examples, some subjects seem to extract the structure of the solving process by comparing the worked examples, while others focus more on the specifics of each example. To these two processes correspond two levels of transfer: correctly solve problems that have the same structure as the examples, regardless of how similar they are, or be better at solving problems that resemble the examples the most. Experiment 2 used a dual-task paradigm to show that some subjects implement both processes, in which case the mental load is greater. This experiment also showed that both processes can lead to the long-term acquisition of the principles behind the examples.     

Creating an Online Learning Community: Is it Possible?

As institutions are moving towards offering more online and distance education courses, scholars have reported that instructors may have difficulty developing learning communities among students enrolled in these courses (DiRamio and Wolverton 2006). The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in students’ perceptions of a learning community when enrolled in an online or on-campus introduction to counseling course. Participants were beginning graduate and advanced undergraduate students interested in pursuing a higher education degree in counseling. Results indicated no significant difference in students’ perceptions of learning communities based on course format.     

Kindergarten entrance assessment: Is it worth the effort?

School psychologists frequently are involved in assessment programs for children entering kindergarten. A comparison is made between screening and assessment related to norm-based and criterion-referenced assessment. Normbased testing can be either categorical or deficit-centered, while the criterion approaches tend to be academic or cognitive-developmental. In order to make appropriate decisions, we need to know the problems and outcomes related to each approach. It is also felt that assessment should be related to the underlying issues in developmental psychology and the type of kindergarten experiences provided for the child.     

Online learning: Is it meant for science courses?

The authors discuss a case study experience in conducting scientific courses such as Environmental Chemistry and Spectroscopy to different groups of undergraduates at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), using web-based learning environments to support conventional teaching/learning sessions. The authors discovered that by supplementing the learning online, students became more interested in their respective fields of study, and thus were able to participate in class discussions more freely. Online, a higher number of group activities can be organized to consolidate the learning of specific topics. The web-based learning environment also allows more interaction opportunities between peers and with the course instructor. Overall, the students reported they found that learning online made the course more interesting, and that the students were consciously aware that they learned more in the process. The paper also highlights the major benefits of conducting a course online from a course instructor's perspective.     

The SEN Code of Practice: Is it User-Friendly?

The 1997 Green Paper (DfEE, 1997) refers to a new 'Code of Practice' to 'be in place by the year 2002'. The present Code contains both principles and procedures, which LEAs and schools are expected to apply, and against which agencies will measure their performance. Yet how user-friendly are they? In this article, a shortened version of a paper prepared as part of a National Research Project, Tony Bowers and David Wilkinson (from the School of Education, The University of Cambridge) consider evidence from past writings and research.